Sunday Thoughts - 3/29/09

Praise God for nuggets of ministry progress! Yesterday was a good day of worship even though it started out a little weird for me. I can’t put a finger on it but it was a rather interesting morning. So much so, I washed my car before service. Weird!

Nevertheless, our women’s ministry was in charge of service yesterday as every 5th Sunday of 2009 is dedicated to the women’s ministry. Kinda sounds like the traditional Mission Circle Sunday back in the day. They did an excellent job ushering us into the presence of God. Tracy did all the singing during praise/worship, good job. I learned something new, the month of March is Women’s History month and Sis Loud did a presentation on Dolores Huerta, Harriet Tubman, and Marian Anderson. Good information that reminds us of God’s faithfulness to humanity.

We continued our study on the names of God, El Elyon – God Most High was in our study line-up.

Topic: Trusting God Who Controls Everything
Text: Genesis 14

Thesis Statement: How much does God control? Everything! God is actively participating in our lives all the time, good and bad.

1. The Distance of God’s Sovereignty – v. 19 - “And he blessed him and said; ‘Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth…”

God is sovereign over heaven and earth.

What this means is….

His Dominion (supreme authority) is Everlasting - The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. - Psalm 24:1 (NLT) - God can do what He wants to.

The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity. - Psalm 115:16 (NLT)

Nothing can stop what God wants to do.

He Does according to His will – “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’

God can do what He wants to without explaining it.

Bottom-line: God is in charge of the entire universe all the time.


2. The Display of God’s Sovereignty – v. 20 - And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand."


- We know God is at work because of God’s Permissive Will

Biblical illustration of God’s permissive will is seen in the life Job (Job 1:1-6)
Be assured that while God’s permissive will allows trouble in our lives it’s to our benefit to trust Him more.

- We know God is at work because of God’s Protective Will

Biblical illustration of God’s protective will is seen in the life Peter (Luke 22:31-32)

- God places limits on Satan. He can’t do no more to you than what God allows.

- Jesus is praying for you!

- God is in control not Satan


3. The Decision to Trust God’s Sovereignty – v. 22 - But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth,

Abram turns down the offer of Bera, king of Sodom to trade Lot for material possessions.

There is one of two things we can do in response to the Sovereignty of God…

- We can oppose His control

- We can trust His control

I closed the message with a series of questions to make us think.

Where does your trust lie? In your stuff, smarts, and skills or the Sovereign

Is your soul eternally secure with the Sovereign? God is in total control of our eternal destiny.

Are you able to accept God’s control when it costs you everything?



God be praised for planting and watering seeds. May it fall on good ground.

In the afternoon, we had our first women’s fellowship service of the year. Great fellowship among the women! The women of Praise Chapel and First Goodwill Church joined together this year to build each our women’s ministry. It’s helped both churches to stay encouraged in the work of the Lord. We’re both small congregations and we’re able to network with each to make a difference in both churches. Evangelist Fannette Douglas was the speaker and she really blessed the women of our church (and those in attendance) in a great way. She has a mentoring ministry called “Daughters of Faith” that is awesome. She is really gifted in ministering to women, young and old. May the women of First Goodwill and Praise Chapel be made better from our fellowship together.

That’s it that’s all, until next time; Stay blessed.